My Buddy Xander

by Janiel
(Waupun, WI, USA)

Ever since Xander was born he didn't like any rough or gritty materials, he wouldn't play in the snow or sand. He even disliked to swing. I had Birth to three take a look and they discovered Sensory processing disorder at the age of two. My son is now Eight and has problems with tags in shirts, certain foods and motion, sound, light.

Listening to music comes on occasion, and screaming comes alot he mimics the loud sounds he hears and certainly doesn't like to be held for long periods of time.

When I was pregnant with him i took the drug Prozac and I am in high hopes because they are linking autism to this that soon they will link spd. I will never put my son on medication we will make it through this until he is old enough to decide for him self if he wants to be medicated.

We have put him through occupational therapy and it has done wonders! Now that we know what Xander needs it's important that we apply his sensory diet daily to allow him to feel comfortable with his environment. As we all know there world feels rigid and unsafe so the more we focus on balancing there Sensory the better they do on a daily bases. We do things like bouncing on big balls, Cleaning house, Exercising, outside activities daily. We have a brush that stimulates the Sensory its applied to the skin and in a certain motion this definitely helps him connect. We do also of encouragement talking to go outside his boundaries this allows him to feel safer within his boundaries.

He definitely has behavior problems that coincide with his spd and it's not easy to differentiate between the two. But I do My Best. If anyone wants to chat please email lagbdxd@yahoo.com